THE CHALLENGE: Dell wanted to enter the increasingly competitive digital music space. But, given that the brand had little music credentials, and would only be selling the DJ Ditty online and through mall kiosks, we needed an innovative strategy that could launch this new MP3 player into one of the most crowded categories in the world, to one of the most cynical audiences -- and achieve both unit and ROI goals within six months.
THE INSIGHT: After researching the target audience, we created an antihero who would stand out in sharp contrast to the rest of the design-centric, self-conscious digital music player market.
THE STRATEGY: We tapped into the key qualities for successful word-of-mouth and creative ideas that will get the brand talked about.
We created the world's first air guitar, lip sync, and dance instructional Dittyos (videos) for the Dell DJ Ditty. Hosted by fictional ex-boy band impresario Mitch Ferrence, they lived online at dellditty.com. Creating an entertainment property like Mitch allowed us to engage people with the Dell brand in a new and relevant way. The campaign's media mix was continuously optimized against the ROI and included traditional print, MSN text links,:60 spots, viral clips, viral trailers, and live appearances that included the Mark Burnett reality TV show "Rock Star: INXS." Eventually Mitch settled into Myspace.com, where he communicated daily with an ever-growing fan base.
THE RESULTS:
Mitch Ferrence resonated with the audience unlike any previous Dell campaign. We achieved a 75% higher clickthrough rate than a typical Dell online campaign, over 6.5 million page views in four months, a double digit click-through to Dell.com from the dellditty.com site, and more than 800K unique visitors to the site. Mitch connected with more than 10,000 "friends" on Myspace.com in the first three weeks, and both sales and ROI measures were met.
Credit Information
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Client: Dell
Agency: Cole & Weber United
Budget: Undisclosed
Case Study URL: http://cwunited.com/default.aspx#page=work&id=dell
